The NFL new league year and free agency is just over one month away. For a Pittsburgh Steelers team with plenty of cash and needs, they should be taking a couple of free agent swings to add immediate starters before filling the rest through April’s draft. We’ll spend a ton of time talking about quarterbacks and wide receivers, buzz that’s ramped up the last week with more reports about which quarterback might return and the trade rumors on Cooper Kupp and Deebo Samuel. But the first free agent that’s come to my mind, one I immediately jumped to once I realized he set to hit the market, is Las Vegas Raiders CB Nate Hobbs.
I know, I know. It’s an upgrade to the defense. Not the offense. And the core issue for Pittsburgh the last five years have been a lackluster offense unable to take advantage of a defense continually keeping the score down. This is adding strength on strength.
Two things. First, there’s a need. As we’ve said countless times, Pittsburgh has been a total mess at slot corner since Mike Hilton departed after the 2020 season. They’ve had no plan or long-term answer. Instead, it’s been a rotating case of underwhelming names and square pegs in round holes. In 2024, it was UDFA Beanie Bishop Jr., basically handed the job out of camp by virtue of staying healthy, before the team pivoted to CB Cam Sutton. A move that didn’t work out, Sutton looking slow and part of the team’s communication problems. His time is up.
In previous years, the Steelers tried Minkah Fitzpatrick before quickly scrapping those plans realizing he wasn’t comfortable there. They’ve had committee approach of run and pass-down names, pairing the likes of Chandon Sullivan and Patrick Peterson in 2023 and Arthur Maulet and Sutton in 2022. Valuable as Hilton was, Pittsburgh’s shown little interest in finding a strong and viable long-term replacement. Adding Hobbs finally gives them that.
Second, the Steelers can walk and chew gum. Adding Hobbs doesn’t prevent Pittsburgh from adding any offensive talent. They can still explore their quarterback options, can (and should) add a veteran receiver. If anything, adding a slot corner gives Pittsburgh one fewer draft need, allowing them to load up elsewhere.
That’s enough big-picture background. What’s the story on Hobbs? A fifth-round pick in 2021, he’s punched above his weight and been a great return on investment after testing as an elite athlete coming out of Illinois (5’11, 196 pounds, 4.48 40, 40.5-inch vert, 11’3″ broad, 9.62 RAS). In four years with the Raiders, he’s played in 51 games with 38 starts. Over that time, Hobbs has racked up 381 tackles (14 for a loss) with 35 pass breakups, three forced fumbles, and three interceptions. His best season came in 2023, racking up 86 stops (six tackles for a loss), a sack, a forced fumble, and an interception.
Hobbs has been a slot corner but has versatility to move around. Per PFF, he recorded 304 slot snaps last season compared to 116 in the box and 104 out wide. He posted similar splits in 2023 but in 2022, functioned primarily as an outside corner logging 500 snaps to only 106 in the slot.
He’s a do-it-all corner who can play the run and the pass. His flexibility and versatile skillset allows him to stay on in all-situations despite being a slot corner. In 2024, he logged 90-percent or more of the defensive snaps in four of the 11 games he played in. He sat at or above 74-percent in nine of them. In 2023, he played 90-percent in eight of 13 games. Hobbs could fit the run so well that the Raiders opted to rarely use their base defense, working him as a quasi-linebacker reflected in his high tackle numbers.
Mike Tomlin’s made a point to mention that. Before a 2023 matchup against the Raiders, Tomlin praised Hobbs’ versatility, comparing him to Buffalo nickel Taron Johnson who similarly never left the field.
“He plays a really complete game,” Tomlin said of Hobbs in his press conference ahead of the game. “He’s good in coverage, he’s good versus the run. He’s a good blitzer, tackler. He plays really good football.
“They’re really comfortable in nickel with just about any personnel group you throw out there. Which I think speaks to his talent and his makeup. It’s very similar to how Buffalo plays with their nickel or Cincinnati plays with Mike Hilton. When you have a high-quality nickel that’s good in the run game and a good blitzer, you’re really comfortable in a lot of circumstances. And their tape displays that.”
Pittsburgh’s familiar with him, too. Hobbs and the Raiders have played against the Steelers in all four of his years. Combined, he has 28 tackles and three pass deflections. From the last three meetings, here’s a cut-up of Hobbs stopping the run. Clips of him making open field tackles on RB Najee Harris, showing knockback power on RB Jaylen Warren, serving as the force defender to turn Harris inside and help on the tackle, beating a block to make a tackle on a screen, and tripping up QB Justin Fields on a designed QB run near the end zone.
And against the pass. Clips of him contesting and finishing on a WR George Pickens throw to the flat and carrying TE Pat Freiermuth down the seam in 2023, again finishing and breaking up the play with good effort and fight.
What else does Hobbs bring? He’ll make an aging defense get younger. Coming off his rookie deal, he doesn’t turn 26 until June. This is someone who could easily play out a three-year deal without slowing down.
Cost? He’s not going to break the bank. Spotrac projects an average yearly value of $2.9 million. That feels low and PFF’s projection of $4 million per year seems more in-line with what he’ll get.
How about downsides? If he’s so good, why is he so cheap? Availability has been a problem. Over the past three seasons, Hobbs hasn’t played in more than 13 games and was active for just 11 in 2024. There has been a list of ailments along the way, but they’ve been freak things. A broken hand in 2022, an eye injury suffered in a team softball game in 2023, an ankle injury in 2024. And he came down with pneumonia to end the 2024 season, “begging” to suit up but being held out by the coaching staff in the finale (he also played in Week 17 despite being hospitalized with the illness the week before).
The injuries are less concerning for a couple reasons. One, he’s still young. Two, there’s no common string of issues. No repeated knee or soft tissue injuries that have a higher chance of occurring again. Three, the contract will be relatively cheap. Four, any time missed is manageable with a guy like Bishop as his backup.
The odds of Hobbs-to-Pittsburgh increased with Gerald Alexander’s hiring. Though his role and what (if any) job Grady Brown still has remains unclear, Alexander spent last season as the Raiders’ safeties coach. Not working directly with a corner like Hobbs but obviously being part of the Las Vegas secondary. There’s familiarity there. With a new regime in Las Vegas that may have a different style of defense and priorities of who to re-sign or not (and Raiders’ DC Patrick Graham is staying, giving Hobbs one fewer external connection to possibly follow), Hobbs might not return. In fact, in the above clip where he pleaded to play, he talked as if he would be playing elsewhere in 2025.
Adding Hobbs gives Pittsburgh desperately-needed definition at slot corner. For a Steelers’ team that played as much sub-package as they have in the last decade, they need to be stronger in the slot. Not just in coverage but someone who can stop the run out of nickel. In 2024, they allowed 4.9 YPC from sub-packages compared to 4.0 out of base. They also need capable blitzers from slot alignment. Hilton was a weapon there. Bishop, Sutton, and everyone else in the secondary this past season? No timing, no effectiveness.
Hobbs solves everything. He can even play outside corner in a pinch but it wouldn’t be his primary role. His low-level contract won’t prevent Pittsburgh from adding, say, CB Charvarius Ward to a good-money deal.
It’s a perfect fit. Hobbs fits the style and the job description of what the Steelers need. He has a familiar face in his corner in Alexander. And he can play for a playoff team. Even if Pittsburgh continually disappoints, Hobbs has played in just one playoff game over four seasons and been part of only one winning team. Since 2021, the Raiders are 28-40. He’s had four total head coaches, interim and full-time. Stability in Pittsburgh, even if it feels like stagnation to those who follow the team, is an upgrade in Hobbs’ world. And he had positive things to say about Tomlin after Tomlin praised him in 2023, hearing nothing but good things from teammates who had played for him (perhaps people like LB Robert Spillane and even Alexander himself, given he was in Pittsburgh from 2022-2023).
It’s a smart, specific signing that will provide an immediate boost to an area of need. The risk is low, the upside is high, and Nate Hobbs could finally be the multi-year answer for a team bouncing from choice to choice, striking out more often than not.
